By Kevin Quinn

Copyright scotsman

The Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust (ELGT) has submitted plans for a proposed café is to sit alongside wider improvement and enhancement works to the former play area at West Pilton Park. Planning permission was previously obtained in December last year for park-wide enhancements, including reference to a future café which is now the subject of this application. Although the ELGT is the applicant, it acts on behalf of the project funder The Mushroom Trust, who help fund the creation and improvement of greenspaces throughout Scotland, and in particular in Edinburgh and the Lothians. If approved, the single storey cafe would have a pitched roof and be operated by catering social enterprise Scran Academy. The public toilets part of the project will be managed by the City of Edinburgh Council. A growers’ area associated with the project would come under the stewardship of an established local growers group, Fresh Start. In the planning documents, the applicant said of the proposals: “The café building, a pavilion by necessity, will have a back-of house, the visual servicing ‘clutter’ of which can sit comfortably within a working walled garden. “The café building is designed as a modest single-storey structure. A pitched roof offers a visually recognisable form, provides good drainage, discourages anti-social roof access, and allows the extent of the building to be legible, seen from within the park as part of the walled garden composition. “The growers’ area is perfectly suited to a walled garden environment in terms of design aesthetic, practical enclosure and security, and shelter. “The walled garden concept allows for a cluster of several facilities to be linked by the common device of the surrounding wall, in this case: café, public toilets and growers’ container unit. “The walled garden provides a more sheltered, and optional, area for cafe outdoor seating in addition to outdoor seating outward facing to the park. The walls of the walled garden provide opportunity for not just security and control of access but also aesthetic interventions, seating and community art displays.” The planning documents state that Scran Academy has been closely involved in the emerging design for the café with respect to all aspects of internal accommodation and layout. And that they intend to use parts of the walled garden for growing edible produce to be utilised within their cooking, and to collaborate with the separate growers’ group Fresh Start on access to the walled garden and sharing of certain facilities. The hours of operation of the café are proposed as Monday – Sunday, 9am – 4pm. One or two park officer roles will be created as part of the wider project, and they would have a separately accessed office and storage base within the café building. Commenting on potential access to the walled garden, the applicant added: “The intention is that access to the garden would be controlled. There may well be times when the gates are open for members of the public to come and go at will, and at other times access could be restricted to café customers, staff and the growers groups.” Make sure that you’re in the loop when it comes to the latest news from Edinburgh and the Lothians with our daily newsletter. Sign up for free today! Access to the walled garden will be gained from West Pilton Grove, as well as from existing pathways to the north and west of the site, and a new path to the south. The public toilets, although having their footprint within the walled garden, will be accessed from outside the walled garden and will be operated and controlled separately by the City of Edinburgh Council. To the west, the space between the walled garden ‘frontage’ and an existing path footpath is to be hard surfaced, forming a wedge shaped area that will accommodate outside seating, bicycle parking, a water bottle filling station and opportunity for congregation. The plans also show that North Edinburgh Arts will lead a project featuring five murals on the side of the new cafe, developed in collaboration with the community. Each mural will represent a distinct aspect of local life, celebrating the diversity and spirit of the neighbourhood. The proposed café building also includes a new park officer base, a privately-funded new role to have a presence across the whole new West Pilton Park. They will run health, wellbeing, nature, and horticultural groups across the park. For the latest public notices from your area, please visit: https://publicnoticeportal.uk